I first met Rachel at Crockett Elementary school in the Spring of 2015. I was the director of a small program within the school and she would join the program in the summer to help with the influx of kids joining us during the summer months. At first it was very much a professional relationship, but very quickly, the tide began to shift. We maintained a level of appropriateness, but it was apparent to anyone that was paying attention that something more was brewing. I knew that I had feelings for Rachel by very quickly noticing the wonderful person she was. She would do anything to make the kids happy, selflessly help her co-workers do anything they needed, and just be an overall perfect example to anyone around her. I began to notice that maybe I was not alone in my feelings toward Rachel when I started to receive texts asking, “do you want me to pick you up a coffee” or “do you want me to pick you up a Publix sub when I’m out for lunch” (my feelings grew when she made fun of me for ordering a wrap and not a sub). I didn’t know it at the time, but it would be random acts of kindness such as these that made me fall in love with Rachel. Even though these acts were fueled by a crush, her kindness has never stopped since. Eventually, I had to leave my job at Crockett which was sad in a lot of ways, but I couldn’t have been more eager to do so because that finally meant I could ask Rachel out. I did and without surprise to anyone reading this she accepted. My love for Rachel has obviously grown exponentially since our humble days at Crockett Elementary. It is still because of her kindness, corkiness, and selflessness that she exuberates to the world everyday that causes my love for her to continue to grow infinitely.

I had worked at a summer program at an elementary school in Brentwood the summer before and wanted to return as I was coming back in town for the summer from school in Knoxville. I heard there was this new guy there that was leading the program and that I needed to reach out to him. We exchanged a few emails about me coming into work, and I, of course, then quickly began to Facebook stalk and google him. We had our first staff meeting a few weeks later to get to know everyone that was going to be working there that summer. I walked in and one of my co-workers who I had become friends with the year before told me to go into the office and ask for Quinten to meet him. I walked into the office and very easily could pick out who Quinten was – I can vividly remember the orange, blue, and white checkered shirt he was wearing. I shook his hand and then scurried back to my friend whispering, “You didn’t tell me he was hot!!” I went home that night telling my parents I had a “hot boss” and was completely smitten. In the weeks that followed, I flirted and the crush I had on him was clear. (The kids even noticed). One day he asked me to take a paper to his office for him, but not to look at it. Of course – I looked at it. It was his two-week notice. I was super bummed that I wouldn’t be working with him anymore. The two weeks passed and he clocked out on his last day. Before he left he asked a couple of co-workers and me to go get some food as a goodbye. We drove over to Oscar’s Tacos – when we got there he ordered his food and I followed. Our coworkers following right behind. We got to our table a couple of moments before our coworkers did after ordering our food at the counter. As we sat down – he quickly said, “Hey so do you want to hang out sometime?” And the rest is history ;)